Making Peace in the Culture Wars

The ‘war on wokeness’ may feel like a new phenomenon, but in fact, it’s been around for centuries. People have been ‘cancelled’, in one way or another, since the beginning of time – it’s human nature to form tribes, create an Us vs Them, and serve as judge, jury and so on. And yet, it feels like today we can’t talk about anything. How did we end up here?

Nuanced and historically grounded, philosopher Anthony Grayling searches for middle ground in an otherwise incendiary debate. Looking at the history of cancellation, from Ancient Greek ostracism through hemlock cups, witch trials and the House of Un-American Activities, his is a timely examination of the state of our public culture and the chilling effect it's having on intellectual discourse.

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ABOUT The Speaker

a.c. Grayling is an outstanding British philosopher and public intellectual, as well as a prolific author (over 30 books) and frequent writer, columnist, broadcaster and commentator on all of the main national media in the United Kingdom. He contributes to the ongoing reflection on how we should live and about possibilities for good lives in good societies. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. He was previously Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He has been a judge on the Booker Prize twice, in 2015 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.